Tuesday's meetings will be action packed. For starters, here is what is in store for the Commission Discussion Session starting at 6:30 PM:
1. Deer topics:
a. Presentation on roadside detectors – Edward Mulka, JAFA Technologies
b. Conference call regarding sterilization – Enid Feinberg, Wildlife Rescue
6:55 P.M.
2. Wildcat/Middle Field Improvements Project:
a. Bids
b. Funding sources
c. Environmental tests
d. Maintenance
e. Other
7:15 P.M.
3. Review MS-4 and plan for TMDL stormwater.
I really don't know what Item 3 is about, but the Commission has set aside 25 minutes for this agenda item.
But wait, there's more!
At 8:00 PM, the real fun begins. On the Commission Meeting Agenda:
First, Senator Matt Smith and State Rep. Dan Miller will be presenting a citation to Mt. Lebanon for being an Allegheny League of Municipalities (ALOM) Banner Community.
After recognition of a Mt. Lebanon volunteer, Citizen Comments begins. Citizens have five minutes to speak on any topic. Please sign the sheet as you enter the commission chambers if you wish to speak at this time. This is NOT for the Public Hearing.
Agenda Item 5 is the Public Hearing on Capital Investment. There will be a separate sign up sheet for the Public Hearing. This is when you can speak about the list of possible projects discussed so far:
2. School safety signage
3. Recycling cans
4. Robb Hollow park improvements
5. Deer sterilization and other deer management practices
6. Traffic pedestrian upgrades
7. Bird Park and Twin Hills trail signs
8. Iroquois fill and grass
9. Church Place concrete pad
10. Rockwood Park concrete pad
11. Other park improvements
12. Consultant to develop design guidelines and HARB ordinance
13. Golf course pavilion
14. Firing range improvements
15. Public Works facility improvements
16. Private street contribution
17. Expanding street reconstruction and maintenance
18. Prescription drug incinerator
19. Sidewalks at tennis center
20. Other capital projects listed in the 2014-2018 Capital Improvement Program
First item on the list will be approved. See Agenda Item 14. We will get to hear from the sports people to please assign funds toward the turf project, even though it is already on the agenda. Deer people, here is your chance. PAYT people, time to speak up. Want more money for Tom Kelley's Public Works facility and parks improvements? Get in line. Sidewalks at the tennis center? Sign up. Live on a private road which needs attention? Tell the Commissioners all about it. Kelly Fraasch has been trying to talk about a prescription drug incinerator at all the Commission Discussion Sessions, but the commissioners would always run out of time. See where her possible project is on the list? Almost at the end. I know this will never happen, but it would be nice if the people who want artificial turf, would let the others speak, since it is already an agenda item. If not, I can see this being an after midnight meeting again.
That was only Agenda No. 5. Items 6 & 7 are Home Rule Charter amendments for the November election.
Still with me? Let's skip to No. 12. Usually, Maher Duessel is appointed as an independent auditor annually, but this year, they will be getting a three year contract. This firm has been our independent auditor for the Municipality and the School District for YEARS! The commission wants to appoint Maher Duessel for audit years 2014, 2015, and 2016.
But Items 14 & 15 are what most people are interested in, of late.
14. Consideration to assign funds for athletic field improvements.
At this time, the Commission would like to assign an additional $162,600 for this project.The original amount to be assigned was $112,600. November 25, 2013 Commission Meeting Minutes
Use of Funds Amount
Base Bid $ 859,000
Add Alt. 6 (filtration) 21,000
Add Alt. 9 (fountain) 8,000
Professional services 122,000
Contingency 40,000
Total $1,050,000
Source of Funds Amount
11/25/13 Assignment $ 637,400
7/13/14 Assignment 162,600
Non-Municipal Sources 250,000
Total $1,050,000
15. Award of bids for the installation of turf at Wildcat/Middle fields
Finally, Agenda Item 18 is moving the parking on Cedar Blvd. near Wildcat and Middle Fields, from the north side of the road to the south side of the road.
On July 8, 2014, the Mt. Lebanon Commissioners will award the contract to Vasco Sports Contractors for Base Bid 1 - Blended Turf with Thatch Zone with Sand and Rubber Infill ($859,000)
Add Alternate 6 - Storm Filtration System ($21,000) and
Add Alternate 9 - Water Fountain ($8,000)
for a total price of $888,000, subject to:
a) Receipt of the NPDSS (?) permit,
b) Receipt of $250,000 of non-municipal funds, and
c) Review and approval of all contract language by the Solicitor and Municipal Manager.
Number 16 has been top secret. The Commission had been speaking of a turf maintenance agreement with the School District, but we never would get any details. No. 16 is to execute the turf maintenance agreement with the School District.
And if there hasn't been enough controversial topics, the Commission will consider parking issues on Academy Avenue.
What the commissioners have managed to do is pack as many hot topics as possible into one evening. The only issue missing is the dog park. That could be under Robb Hollow park improvements.
And in case you missed it, Charlotte Stephenson wrote an excellent Letter to the Editor in today's Post-Gazette. "Newcomer tax and turf unnecessary"
Update July 4, 2014 11:02 AM Please visit newly created "Mt. Lebo Residents Against Child-Health Risks of Artificial Turf" on Facebook.
Update July 6, 2014 5:53 PM Mt. Lebanon, PA Residents Against Artificial Turf at Wildcat and Middle Fields Petition here.
Update July 4, 2014 11:02 AM Please visit newly created "Mt. Lebo Residents Against Child-Health Risks of Artificial Turf" on Facebook.
Update July 6, 2014 5:53 PM Mt. Lebanon, PA Residents Against Artificial Turf at Wildcat and Middle Fields Petition here.
44 comments:
John Witherspoon — 1776 (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence)
"“Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue.”
Mt. Lebanon will soon be slaves to expensive artificial turf, thanks to our selfish, profligate commissioners and SAB!
That is correct, 11:44 AM. Once we get artificial turf on those historic, flood prone fields, there is no turning back.
Elaine
How stupid does Shaw think our Commissioners are?
Shaw didn't provide Gateway Engineers and the Commission with the requested MSDS for their recycled SBR tire rubber infill. Instead, Shaw substituted an 11-year-old MSDS of a 99% "vulcanized rubber compound" that is "not defined as a hazardous waste". Almost everyone knows that tires are considered hazardous waste, and are not 99% rubber, but contain large amounts of carbon black (e.g., 33% by weight), along with things like benzene, zinc, sulfur, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, aniline, volatile organic hydrocarbons, acetone, arsenic, barium, benzothiazole, cadmium, chloroethane, chromium, butylated hydroxyanisole, cycloalkenes, cobalt, copper, halogenated flame retardants, isoprene, lead, mercury, methyl ethyl ketone, naphthalene, butadiene, toluene, trichloroethylene, butylbenzyl phthalate, etc.
--Pam Scott
Off topic, but Dormont's fireworks out did Lebo's!
How much total does the commission have to play with in unassigned funds this year? Last year, the total amount was disclosed.
It was disclosed this year, but I don't recall what the amount is. If you email the commission, I would hope that someone would answer you. I would do it, but I am usually ignored.
Elaine
I hope I don't lose my five minutes by TKO (Tom Kelley Outburst) on Tuesday.
Elaine
The Most Expensive Game In Town: The "Rising Cost of Youth Sports and the Toll on Today's Families"
Reviewed by Brooke de Lench
http://www.momsteam.com/books/most-expensive-game-in-town-rising-cost-youth-sports-toll-todays-families
"The stories Hyman has selected beautifully illustrate the book's central theme: that too many organizations and individuals are putting making money well before the health and safety of kids playing sports, in the process essentially robbing them of their childhood and separating their parents from their hard-earned money, money that would, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, be better spent on a certificate of deposit to help defray their child's college tuition.
A personal favorite is Chapter Two, titled "Baby Goes Pro", which tells the story of a business called Gymtrix, founded by a woman named Doreen Bolhuis, which sells parents of infants as young as six months on the idea that its DVDs and gym sessions will somehow give their baby an edge against their peers. It is based on a piece Hyman wrote in 2010 for the New York Times about Bolhuis and other "baby-sports" entrepreneurs who tap "into a wide vein of angst and insecurity among parents about when to start a child in sports", playing on a fear of "waiting too long" which "nudges us to search out soccer leagues with nursery-school divisions for three-year olds."
Soon after the article appeared, I got a call from a producer at the "Today Show" who had read my book, Home Team Advantage, the second chapter of which, titled "Too Much, Too Soon", dealt with the subject four years earlier. She felt it provided ideal background information for a segment the show was doing on how the tentacles of the youth sports business machine were now reaching into the cribs of babies in a search for new customers. To make a long story short, I ended up as a guest on the show as part of its "Baby Goes Pro" segment, during which I pointed, not only to the absence of any studies to show that getting babies and toddlers started in sports gave them an edge later on, but to data showing that only one out four kids viewed as "superstars" at the age of 10, 11 or 12 went on to be a star in high school sports (e.g. were what is called "early bloomers").
The Gymtrix story, though, highlights both the greatest strength of The Most Expensive Game in Town and perhaps its biggest weakness. While Hyman does a great job of reporting, the book raises more questions than it answers. Perhaps it is because the author is a journalist, not someone like me, whose business it is to offer practical advice to sports parents on how not to get, as I put it in Home Team Advantage, "sucked into the crazy vortex of competitive youth sports." For instance, if the problem parents face is marketers trying to separate them from their money for organized sports at ever earlier ages, instead of giving kids time for the unstructured, free play they need for healthy child development, perhaps the solution for parents is to start their own parent-run free play group for their kids at a local church, synagogue, mosque, or community center."
For anyone that missed the key element in 10:49's comment--
"that too many organizations and individuals are putting making money well before the health and safety of kids playing sports..."
and that my friends is what our Lebo turf agenda is all about in my opinion.
11:18 AM, I have been told this more than once. Youth Sports is a lucrative business. The emails go something like this. "Your child was a pleasure to have during ____ season and shows real talent. We are having a clinic and hope to see your child there."
The equipment companies get involved too.
I'm trying to find the quote that Dave made about how difficult it is to say no to a six year old who wants to play soccer and can't because of the shortage of fields. I think there was a mom who said that her five year old couldn't play because there was no time available. It may have been during the pleas for turfing of McNeilly period of Mt. Lebanon history.
Elaine
The mother of the five year old could arrange a play date for her like-minded moms and five year olds and play soccer until their little legs give out. Nobody will stop them, but that is too tough. The mom needs a hand and of course a million+ dollar plastic used tire littered field to teach their five year how to kick a soccer ball!
Perhaps the LACK OF unstructured, free play noted by the writer quoted in the 10:49 comment is the cause for a lot of the problems we're seeing in Lebo.
The drug use, bullying, disregard for others and rules. Could it be that these coddled, hovered over youth just never had the opportunity to fend for and entertain themselves?
Somone was always stepping in to tell them how to get along with others, that even if you lost you're a winner, no ones keeping score and then when they get to HS and beyond they lwarn too late - someone is keeping score, someone wants to seperate the winners from the losers.
Youth sports has managed to do what the schools have not been able to accomplish totally; take early childhood away from children. And this "..your child shows talent" thing reminds me of those old "draw the duck" ads inside matchbook covers.
Youth sports people will say that they have the best of intentions and are only trying to teach teamwork and sportsmanship. Sounds good; and, if fact, they may have some success in so doing. But there is something inherently wrong with scheduling just about every waking minute of a kid's day and depriving him or her of the opportunity to develop individuality. Of course the ultimate responsibility for a kid's time rests on the parents, but peer pressure and pressure from the various youth sports groups (whose self interest is served by getting as many kids into their programs as possible) must not be discounted or ignored.
Let me be clear; there is nothing fundamentally wrong with field/team sports; but my opinion is that these programs start kids too young, continue too long, and cost too much.
Richard, totally agree.
How in the world did kids learn to play ball pre-youth sports.
There was a time when being old enough to join the midgets, or pee-wees was a right of passage. Then you tried out to make a team, it wasn't automatic.
Up until then, the kids on their own built their own field in a vacant lot or walked to The nearest one without parents and played all day.
No umpires, no snacks, an occassional spat over "he was safe/he was not" which the kids learned to resolved themselves so the game could go on!
Now the kids don't get to develop their own social skills.
I sent this to the commissioners, Steve Feller, Phi Weis, and Dan Deiseroth today:
"I don't know who to ask, so I have included all of you.
On Tuesday's agenda, I see:
a) Receipt of the NPDSS permit,
b) Receipt of $250,000 of non-municipal funds, and
c) Review and approval of all contract language by the Solicitor and Municipal Manager.
John Bendel had told me during Citizen Comments that there was more than $250,000 raised and that the cash is in hand. Have you received the $250,000 in non-municipal funds? Where is the additional money going? When are we going to see a physical accounting of the non-municipal funds? What is the status of the NPDSS permit? Have the contracts been reviewed by the Solicitor and Municipal Manager, and if so, have they been approved? Where can we see the contract with the School District? Has that been approved by the School Board? Why have we not seen the MSDS for organic infill? Have you followed up with Dr. Johnson, now that you have received the MSDS for the rubber tire infill?
I am hoping to get my questions answered now, to allow others time to speak on Tuesday. I know it is going to be a long night.
I hope you have had a change of heart and will stop this project.
Elaine Gillen"
If I get answers before Tuesday's meeting, I will share here.
Elaine
Elaine what is the next step in stopping this? People were talking about this at the 4th Fireworks and several said that the $250,000 was not reached so they were going to count "pledges". Is this true? My kids are still curtain-pullers so we don't yet have to worry about them playing on the turf but both my wife and I are former Div 1 athletes. Chances are good that our kids will be athletes too. But my kids are also in the range where autism starts. i read those links and can't understand how and why this is happening. Guess Brumfield doesn't care about OUR kids only that his gets his "Field of dreams".
I'm curious—
Is there suddenly an epidemic of 6 year olds being turned from playing soccer in Mt. Lebanon?
We read a lot of bitchin' about anonymous comments on the blog, perhaps we should start asking for the names of the 6 year olds being denied access to soccer.
I am not going to be publishing names of six year olds. Thanks.
Elaine
No not the names of the six year olds, the family name.
There shouldn't be any family in Lebo denied access to soccer play at any age.
5:19, as I see it, there are three things that could stop this 1) not getting the $250,000, 2) not getting the required permits, and 3) not getting the final approval from the Solicitor or Manager.
1) John Bendel assured me that they have surpassed the $250,000, and it wasn't pledges but cash in hand. Would he lie to me? Uh yeah!! I wouldn't doubt what you heard was the truth. Why else would that stipulation be in the motion?
2) I asked about the status of the permit.
3) I have been copying the Solicitor and Manager on all my emails.
For sure, public opinion isn't go to sway the commissioners. This is the same group who ignored 4,000 signatures to cap the high school project at $75 million.
I despise what Brumfield, Linfante, Bendel, maybe Silverman, Franklin and his henchmen have done to us.
I see that the anti turf petition has gotten more signatures today. I will put a link to the petition as an update to this post. We will present more signatures on Tuesday.
Elaine
I mean seriously... is it just one six year being denied access to soccer?
Or are there dozens? Hundreds?
How do we know any are being deprived if we don't have names?
The other issue is how does turfing one field solve getting six year olds play time?
If its being used for older kids laccrosse and soccer the 6 year olds aren't getting more play time.
5:53 PM, stop being rational!!! Stop asking reasonable questions!!! If I ask Linfante, she will say that the numbers are overwhelming. If I ask Bendel, he will tell me that the number has exceeded previous numbers. If I ask Silverman, he will tell me to check Gatorade sales. If I ask Brumfield - wait. I can't ask Brumfield because he will not acknowledge my existence.
Elaine
Does anyone know who the key players of the "green" Democrap Committee were who helped to get these chump "commissioners" elected?
The public should know.
So what about this:
Review MS-4 and plan for TMDL storm water
Why don't we have more details regarding this subject matter for the discussion?
Did you know that storm water run-off is the primary source of water pollution in the US and that it is the only source that is increasing?
Did you know that all of the creeks in Mt Lebanon are seriously contaminated?
A few weeks ago the EPA was in town for a visit. They also visited other areas of PA and shortly thereafter, they mandated improvements in storm water management in 85 municipalities. The EPA has already told Alcosan that their 2 billion dollar water cleanup plan is inadequate. Mt Lebanon is part of the Alcosan water problem.
What is Mt Lebanon doing to ensure that our storm water is not contaminated AT ALL? This means best practices. If they aren't written, they don't exist and they aren't happening.
While the commissioners focus on their field of hazardous toxic dreams, our water situation is getting worse.
10:33 didn't Silverman claim that turf would bring economic prosperity to Lebo businesses through Increased Gatorade sales.
I asked Manager Steve Feller and copied Solicitor Phil Weis about the Sports Advisory Board and the Turf Project Task Force having to file Statements of Financial Interest, a.k.a.Financial Disclosure Statements. Some Boards are required to file these.
Here is Steve's reply:
"Ms. Gillen:
Neither the members of the Sports Advisory Board nor the Turf Task Force are required to file a statement of financial interest. They are not "public officials" under the act. They are simply recommending bodies. Thanks.
Steve
------------"
So the most powerful board in the municipality is not required. They can "recommend" to the commissioners to take on million dollar projects, commit to $250,000 and not have to show any financial records for those commitments, and now not even come up with the cash in hand to start this project, but they don't have to file Statements of Financial Interests. OK, got it.
Elaine
How can the commissioners place the responsibility of selling field signs in the hands of the SAB if they are just a recommending body?
This flies in the face of the municipal codes and charter!
7:58 WE DO KNOW several prominent democrats that endorsed several of the commissioners.
Might want to rethink their situations come November election time.
The MTL Democratic committee declares on its website:
"The MTLDC is a volunteer organization consisting of committed Mt. Lebanon Democrats who are determined to elect local, state and national candidates who promote the basic principles of the Democratic Party:
Be GREEN by pursuing the efficiencies and benefits of being a green community
Be STRONG by respecting a diversity of views, opinions, and talents
Be SAFE by requiring properly supported public safety services
Be WISE by ensuring fiscal responsibility
Be VIGILANT by holding leaders accountable for their actions
Be SMART by supporting excellence in our schools and libraries"
Well lets see how dedicated this party is to its principals.
Artificial turf is not Green yet the democrat commissioners are going to put it in. Not a peep from the MTLDC!
The democrat commissioners, especially President Linfante, tried to silence diverse opinions. Remember she threatened to shut down a commission meering.
Artificial turf isn't very fiscally responsible by adding a half million dollar expenditure every 8 years to the already strained municipal budget.
Has anyone seen the MTLDC hold any sitting official responsible for their actions? So much for vigilance!!!
This isn't to say the MTLRC is any better, but right now, this minute-- the Commission is totally populated by apparently unprincipled democrats and the democratic committee sits deaf, dumb and blind!
For starters, Here are Steve Silverman's endorsers:
http://www.votestevesilverman.com/steves-team/
A little wind under Kristen's wings...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.263648473668649.70968.192145180818979&type=1
I'm a little confused about a couple of the capital projects proposed. What are public works and shooting range improvements? How can there be improvements to facilities that are in the middle of a 100 year flood zone that requires flood plain management? Nothing should be built or improved there.
How can we expect decent roads, street trees, park trails, and athletic fields when public works has the facilities of a third world nation?
Could explain Tom Kelley's meltdown, 4:02 PM.
I see that John Bendel will not be present tomorrow evening. Instead, he will be phoning in.
Elaine
he has been phoning it in since he was elected.
7:33 maybe just phony
JB it is time to phooone hooommme!
http://usafootball.com/blogs/health-and-safety/post/8883/a-checklist-for-synthetic-turf-fields-best-management-practiceshttp%3A/usafootball.com/blogs/health-and-safety/post/8883/a-checklist-for-synthetic-turf-fields-best-management-practices
Something for School District to read.
10:27 that is pretty entertaining considering thatt California transplant,
environmentally concerned mom, Penn Future communication manager and 1/2 of the "Real Lebo" girls is completely mute on the artificial turf issue.
Wonder what happened to her sense of community?
Under normal circumstances, she would have had an anti-turf sign in her front yard.
Elaine
Yeah, these aren't normal circumstances.
Stand by your convictions and your job or diss your pal, a real conundrum!
Well at least the neighborhood people that are concerned about the environment now know who not to depend on when it comes down to the short strokes.
In response to my July 6 3:03 PM comment, I heard back from Commissioner Fraasch, no one else. Here is her response:
"Hi Elaine,
Sorry for the delay in response.
I'm away and the internet access is terrible here.
Mr. Feller will be able to tell us where we are at with non-municipal share if John cannot.
I have been asking for an official accounting of funds for weeks if not months, as soon as I get them then maybe they will be made available publicly.
NPDSS permit, it looks as if we will be discussing this tonight.
It sounds like the contract draft for the agreement between the muni and SD hasn't been posted and probably because we will be discussing tonight.
After discussion it will probably be posted or we can provide a copy to you.
MSDS for organic infill. Good question. We got an incomplete request in our packets that was made at the last meeting.
I asked for each of the vendors turf product MSDS to be provided to the Commission tonight.
We only got the recommended. I hope the other MSDS sheets will be provided tonight as requested.
I have followed up with Dr. Johnson, after he emailed the Commission some basic information about the MSDS sheet.
I hope we are having a toxicologist tonight, if not Dr. Johnson, then someone else to go over these sheets with us.
Thanks Elaine for your inquiry.
Kelly"
Elaine
Thanks to all who have signed the petition. Keep it going!
-Charlotte Stephenson
Sharing this insightful email that many of us received this afternoon (will not fit into one comment so am breaking it up into two):
"Sent: Jul 8, 2014 1:07 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Artificial Turf: The More You Know. . . .
Friends,
Here is how concerns about the health implications of artificial turf are being addressed:
"We have had artificial turf at the MLHS stadium for 40 years. If we get the same company, and use the same product. . . ."
Here's the thing that bugs me: There is no way that it's the same product as what was used 40 years ago, or even the last time it was replaced 4 years ago. Crumb rubber infill has only been used since 1999, just 15 years ago. Each time the field is replaced, because the mixture of compounds is incomparable to the mixture used previously (think of the changes in the technology of tire manufacture as well as the road surfaces, let alone the changes in process used by the manufacturer of the crumb rubber), we are dependent on the current MSDS sheets to show the chemicals that children -- and other vulnerable populations who will walk past these fields -- will be exposed to as RESPIRABLE PARTICULATES as the crumb rubber breaks down. Each time a field is replaced, we roll the dice. That's the message that the Dr. Philip Johnson delivered at the Discussion Meeting on June 24, 2014. And that's the message of this letter from the manufacturer of the crumb rubber to Gateway Engineers: The MSDS data is from a similar product and a new test is going to have to be done by an independent third-party for us to know what the specific product laid on those fields contains.
http://mtlebanon.org/DocumentCenter/View/10364
A little foresight is worth a hell of a lot of regret down the road. Once we go down this path, it will be extremely costly for us to reverse course -- and it will be decades for us to reverse the environmental -- and COMMUNITY -- impact. We need to be very comfortable that this is the best use of our tax dollars so IF the worst happens -- and childhood cancer rates go up (how can we hope to know without a baseline health assessment), or too many of our children suffer from debilitating injury, or property values drop because of the problems of storm water runoff have to be remediated through higher taxes -- we can all just swallow hard and say, "O, well, we thought it was the right thing to do."
The following are links that you should have a chance to read for yourself.
Exposure to Neurotoxins and Carcinogens
This link is the MSDS sheet of the material that ALL bidders (organic infill is an option that was given different bid specifications, which I do not understand):
http://mtlebanon.org/DocumentCenter/View/10364. Note the admission that zinc levels are too high.
Please note that our specifications require a test on the material that will be used on our fields. This MSDS reports a test from 2013. When will this test be performed between today and August 1 when the work is scheduled to commence??? What if the test reveals unsafe cadmium, chromium, or lead levels???
This is the link from the Centers from Disease Control on the "safe" levels for chemicals listed in the MSDS: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-123/ As the report to Gateway Engineers acknowledges, high levels of zinc were present.
Heat Stress, Infection, and Other Risks
I found this report from the New York State Department of Health that most clearly explained the risks of heat stress, injury, infection, latex allergy, and chemical exposure. It is where I obtained the finding that these fields have reached 200 degrees F in studies.
http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/synthetic_turf/crumb-rubber_infilled/fact_sheet.htm
Second part:
"ACL Injury
There are three reports, courtesy of a Mt Lebanon friend who teaches at Pitt's School of Medicine on the increased incidence of lower extremity injury. The first clearly states that athletes are 1.39 times more likely to have ACL injury on artificial over natural turf. I've attached those studies to this email, one specifically addresses the prevalence of industry bias.
Concussion
This is from Penn State Professor McNitt, who spoke at the June 12 open forum: ". . . field management practices directly affect field hardness and, in turn, risk of head injury. As a result, monitoring field hardness is key. In fact, the NFL now requires field managers to measure surface hardness before every game." I saw nothing about the cost of this procedure in the list of what would be required for field maintenance.
http://plantscience.psu.edu/
A question posed to me by a fellow resident: "If the NFL is getting away from artificial turf, why are we racing to expand our use?"
Conclusion
In 2009, a broad coalition of citizens demanded that NJ turf fields be tested for neurotoxins and carcinogens. Although the NJ Department of Environmental Protection attempted to recruit 50 fields for study, only 5 agreed. Why? The threat of litigation. The final report, even with this limited scope, showed that among the metals with known human toxicity that were observed in the air samples were arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and lead. http://www.nj.gov/dep/dsr/publications/artificial-turf-report.pdf
I'm going to end with the lament of Dr. David Brown, a toxicologist with the nonprofit, Environment and Human Health, Inc., when asked when people were going to start to notice of the cancer-related harms of artificial fields: “Five,” he said. “Five years. Because we’re putting first graders and cancerous materials together. And when the cancer starts, people like myself will be sorry we didn’t argue more effectively.”
http://www.saratogafalcon.org/content/are-artificial-turf-fields-carcinogenic
Each of us has different tolerance for risk. For me, the risks to the children of our community, as well as the broader financial and environmental risks, outweigh the argument for increased playing time. Converting beautiful green space into artificial turf fields that must carry restrictions and limitations for proper use DOES NOT IMPROVE or enhance our community.
Regardless of whether you agree, come tonight to lend your voice to the debate.
710 Washington Rd
Conference Room C-104 for the Discussion Meeting that begins at 6:30 pm
Commissioners' Room for the Commissioners' Meeting that begins at 8:00 pm
Sign the petition if you agree:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mt-lebanon-pa-residents-against-artificial-turf
Thank you for your consideration."
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